


Level Up

by Misty_Reeyus



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: 5+1 Things, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 22:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16334798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misty_Reeyus/pseuds/Misty_Reeyus
Summary: Karol hits his growth spurt and rides it really, really,reallyhigh.Or, five times Karol discovers he’s taller than a member of his family, and one time it doesn’t matter at all.





	Level Up

**13** **½**

Ever since he noticed puberty starting to kick in, Karol has been paying rapt attention to his height. He’s been measuring himself every month, standing up straight against his bedroom wall at Brave Vesperia and having Yuri or Judith scratch a little mark into the wood for him. Every time he checks, the new line is always a centimeter or two above the last, and that never ceases to flood him with pride. He’s thrilled to finally be growing, and his guildmates share in his excitement, congratulating him with hair ruffles and back pats that Karol gladly accepts.

But it isn’t until Rita comes through Brave Vesperia’s door one day that Karol realizes he’s truly reached his first milestone.

With Rita as busy as she is, Karol hasn’t seen her in several months. Now, she comes accompanied by Judith, who’s going to give Rita a lift to the research facility in Heliord after she finishes getting Ba’ul to help her run a quick delivery job to Palestralle. Until then, Rita makes herself at home inside the HQ lounge, ambles towards the kitchen and pops open the fridge. Karol, currently leaned against the adjacent kitchen counter as he chows down on an egg sandwich, noncommittally watches as she glances through food beside him—until revelation hits, and his eyes go wide.

“Holy shit,” Karol gasps, launching his hand out to shut the fridge door, ignoring the way that makes Rita whirl towards him with a scowl. He steps closer, looks Rita up and down to make sure his conclusion is correct, and breaks into a near-manic grin once he confirms yes, yes it is. “I’m _taller than you_!”

Rita blinks once, twice, before her scowl deepens. She irritably places her hands on her hip, and it occurs to Karol that her stature is utterly _precious_ —she’s nearly seventeen years old but she’s not even a smidge taller than she was when they first met.

“You say that like it’s some sort of accomplishment,” Rita huffs, unimpressed.

“It _is_ an accomplishment!” Karol insists, because there is no way in hell he’s going to let her ruin this for him. “I’m taller than you! You can’t call me ‘squirt’ or ‘runt’ or ‘brat’ anymore.” His hands fly up to his face, covering his mouth in sheer delight. “I could even start calling _you_ those things.”

Okay, so now he’s very purposefully trying to annoy her, but Karol can’t help it. Teasing Rita never gets old, and he’s so legitimately giddy about this that he simply _has_ to rub it in. Possessed by wicked glee, Karol reaches a hand out to roughly muss up Rita’s hair, fully aware he’s pushing his luck but far too emboldened to care.

Rita _growls_ , and then Karol’s hand is smacked away as she abruptly jumps up, rises into the air like gravity doesn’t apply to her. “Don’t get carried away!” she cries, and Karol doesn’t have a chance to react before she enacts her usual payback, the ever familiar karate chop striking the top of his skull. Karol yelps and instantly retreats to clutch at his head, glancing up to where Rita remains levitating a good foot above the floor.

“Grow all you want, brat,” she croons, crossing her arms and puffing up her chest victoriously. “I can just keep flying higher.”

Grinning cheekily, Rita sticks out her tongue at him. Karol, somewhat humbled but still jubilant, simply mirrors her by sticking out his own tongue in turn.

It’s a truce. For now, anyway.

* * *

**14**

When Karol comes a-knocking at Estelle’s front door in Halure, he promptly braces himself for what he knows is coming. Estelle, bless her heart, is very physical about expressing her love for her friends, always tucking them into the tightest embraces she can manage whenever they haven’t seen each other in a while. Karol’s not complaining, he’s really not, but he also knows from experience that Estelle’s hugs can be practically _bone-crushing_.

So as the door swings open, Karol quickly traps his breath in his lungs, just in time for a pink-and-white blur to come barreling into him. A pair of enthusiastic arms form a vice-grip around his rib cage, and Karol manages a chuckle that’s only slightly winded before he returns the favor, squeezing Estelle’s back as she giggles. The princess projectile can be a tricky contender, but by now, Karol’s learned how to be fully prepared for when she pounces.

What Karol’s not prepared for, though, is when Estelle abruptly pulls away, looking him up and down with a curious furrow to her brow. She brings her hand up to pat the top of her own head, then motions it forward, her palm still facing down, until her pinky bumps against his forehead. Her fingers wind up just a bit above his eyebrows, and Karol blinks up at them as he abruptly realizes what Estelle already has.

“Oh, wow, look at you, Karol! You’ve gotten so tall and handsome.” Estelle lightly tousles her hand through his hair, green eyes twinkling impishly. “You must have so many women to please.”

Karol blushes. He did notice himself shooting up quite recently, so it’s not all that surprising to know he’s gone and surpassed Estelle in height, but he can’t help thinking he still looks more stocky than handsome. Put that together with how his voice has been cracking, he feels more awkward about his body now than ever before—but Estelle genuinely seems happy for him, and Karol finds that a little contagious.

“Oh, cut it out, Estelle,” Karol huffs playfully, lightly swatting her hand away. “You know there’s only one girl.”

“I know,” Estelle hums, and leans in conspiratorially. “So? How’s it going with you and Nan?”

Karol smiles and rubs the back of his neck. Estelle’s been rooting for him and Nan since day one, and now that they’re actually officially _really_ dating, Estelle’s more or less become his go-to for relationship gossip and advice. “We’re doing pretty good,” Karol says, “but I’ve been having trouble thinking about how to arrange our next big date. I know First Bloom is coming up here in Halure soon, and I wanna take Nan to it again, but I need to do something to make it more special than just a repeat of last year.”

Estelle’s face instantly brightens, and she clasps her hands together in front of her chest. “I might have a couple ideas. If you want to hear them, that is.”

“That’s one of the reasons I came to visit, actually.”

Estelle squeals in delight, then grabs him by the hand to pull him inside her house and shuts the door behind them. “I’ll put on the kettle,” she declares, cheerfully rushing off towards her kitchen, “and then we’ll talk about this over some tea, okay?”

Karol grins, making himself at home by sitting atop her living room couch. “Yeah,” he calls after her. “Sounds good to me.”

* * *

**15**

Even back before puberty started running its course, Karol was still easily the strongest in the party in terms of pure muscle. His weapons have always been so much heavier than anyone else’s, and if he was good at heavy lifting when he was twelve, he’s _unbeatable_ at it now, able to handle at least twice as much physical labor as anyone else. When it comes to the jobs that involve loading crates or heaving along dufflebags, everyone at Brave Vesperia knows they’d best make way for the boss.

And in this case, that also makes Karol the one who currently has to piggyback-carry an unconscious Raven through the battlefield.

Brave Vesperia doesn’t run into a jam like this all that often, but they apparently set out this morning with far fewer life bottles than they should have, and of course Raven, the moron, didn’t bother to heal himself or even let the rest of them know he was struggling until it was too late. This is a guys-only mission, too, so without Estelle available to cast Revive or Judith around to get Ba’ul to bail them out, their only option is to wait for Raven to come to on his own.

Swinging around a weapon whilst also lugging the old man along isn’t easy, not even for Karol. But Raven once did the same for him, and in a freezing cold ice field to boot, so it’s only right that Karol return the favor. For now, Yuri and Repede are relegated to most of the hard-hitting as Karol simply focuses on self-defense and party-wide heals. In fact, he’s in the middle of casting Nice Aid Smash on Repede when there’s finally a stirring of movement on his back.

“Hnngggg. Augh, ohhhh... Kiddo?”

“Raven?!” Karol replies, promptly making his retreat from the front lines. Leaving Yuri and Repede to take care of the rest of the enemies, Karol reaches into his bag for a lemon gel that he then shoves over his shoulder into Raven’s mouth. “Are you okay?”

“Nnnn, yeah, jus’ peachy,” Raven drawls, his tone cheeky even as fruity syrup audibly sticks to the inside of his mouth. “Yer back’s real comfy, yanno that? Like a mattress.”

Karol sighs, stuffing one more gel down Raven’s throat before carefully lowering him to the ground and turning to face him. With a lazy grin, Raven reaches out towards the top of Karol’s head for what seems to be meant as a familiar head pat of affection, but then seems to think better of it when his arm has to noticeably stretch upwards. Instead, Raven decides to change course and simply give Karol a hearty pat on the back.

“Damn, yer really growin’ right on past, kid. Yer gonna leave this old man in the dust.”

Karol pulls Raven’s bow and arrows out from his own bag and pastes on his best stern glare. “I’ll leave you in more ways than that if you don’t make sure to heal yourself from now on.”

Raven holds up his hands in surrender, then accepts his weapon back from Karol and obeys by shooting several Love Shots into the air. The glowing arrows come back in on himself, and Raven brightens up as strength visibly flows back into him. “Thanks for the lift, boy!” Raven calls after he’s done, tossing Karol a wink before rushing to rejoin the fray with Yuri and Repede.

Karol rolls his eyes, but can’t help smiling all the same.

“Sure,” he whispers under his breath. “No problem, Dad.”

* * *

**16**

“I just want to remind you that if you break his heart, I’ll break your neck.”

Karol’s coming down the stairway when the words float up to his ears, not directed at him, but nonetheless cause for him to sigh. Bracing himself, he takes a few more steps down, then shakes his head at the ever familiar sight of Nan, who’s making herself as comfortable as she can on the visitor’s couch in Brave Vesperia’s waiting room, and Judith, who stands over Nan with crossed arms and her face pursed into a glare.

“Yes, so you’ve told me every time I’ve come here to pick him up,” Nan replies, smiling, perfectly unbothered. When Judith first started keeping tabs on her, Nan was actually pretty intimidated, but after a few years’ worth of these antics, she now seems more amused than anything. As Karol approaches, she glances behind Judith to toss a wave at him. “Hey. Your sister’s threatening me again.”

Nan uses that term semi-jokingly. His three “big sisters”, his “big brother”, and his “dad”—that’s how she refers to his family, and Karol has never bothered to correct her because honestly, it’s not _wrong_. Sure, sister may not be the _exact_ term he would use to refer to Judith specifically, but it’s close enough, and with how overprotective she can be at times like this, she certainly plays the role of a big sis pretty damn well.

“Judyyyyy,” Karol whines, grabbing his pseudo-sister around the shoulders to spin her around. Fixing her face to face, he pastes on his puppy-dog pout, the one that he’s been using ever since he was twelve and that still manages to be effective at sixteen. “ _P_ _l_ _ease_ leave my girlfriend alone.”

Honestly, Karol’s pretty sure the root cause of all this friction is really just that Judith never forgave Nan for that time she and Tison tried to kill Ba’ul. In fact, he doubts that Judith will _ever_ be able to forgive someone who tried to hurt her best friend in the world. So Karol knows Judith will probably never truly like Nan as a person, but he’s grateful that for his own sake, Judith at least tolerates her. As long as Nan continues to make Karol happy, Judith will let her be.

“Fine,” Judith sighs, putting her hands up in surrender. “For now, anyway.”

She bends her knees slightly as she leans in, her lips aiming for Karol’s cheek—but what’s supposed to be a typical gesture is offset by her head winding up closer to his chest than to his face. After adjusting her stance, Judith doesn’t have to bend over to kiss him; if anything, she actually has to crook her neck upwards a little. Only then does Karol realize that Judith is _short_ now compared to him, when it used to seem like he would endlessly look up to her.

“Remember,” Judith says after delivering the peck, “if she ever hurts you...”

“I know, I know. I’ll let you have first crack, I promise.” Karol dips in to kiss Judith’s cheek in turn, then laces his hand with Nan’s and pulls her towards the front door. “Love you, Judy. I’ll be home by eleven.”

“I’ll hold you to that!” Judith calls back, and waves after him as finally, he and Nan take off for their simple date of dinner and a show.

Nan leans up against his shoulder as soon as Judith’s out of sight, giggling, “She’s so weird.”

“Yeah,” Karol agrees, and offers only a helpless shrug. “But she’s mine.”

* * *

**17**

“C’mon, I only had one slice earlier,” Karol whines, gesturing at the lone piece of shortcake left on the kitchen counter. “You had two.”

“Yeah,” Yuri fires back, “because I’m the one who _made_ it.”

“That doesn’t matter! It’s all for the guild and the guild for all!”

Yuri rolls his eyes. “Boss, that is _so_ not meant to apply to stuff like this.”

Karol huffs as he glares down his guildmate, the two of them left at an apparent impasse. Yuri baked up the cake for the whole guild earlier this afternoon, but now there’s only one piece left, and apparently, neither of them is willing to just let the other have it. Pursing his lip, Karol shoves the plastic wrapped plate away from either of them, then holds his left arm out, elbow pressed against the table grain.

“Arm wrestle you for it?” Karol suggests, quirking a brow in challenge.

“Oh, hell no,” Yuri hisses, giving him the stink-eye. Karol sighs; it was worth a shot, but they both know that even left-handed, Karol has been able to kick Yuri’s ass at arm-wrestling ever since he was fifteen. There’s little doubt in either of their minds who would come out the victor of that one—and now Yuri narrows his eyes and voices a suggestion of his own. “How about we just straight up wrestle?”

Yuri launches his arm out towards Karol’s neck, the beginnings of a familiar attack that usually ends with Karol trapped in a ruthless noogie. On instinct, Karol snaps his head back, and then surprises both of them when his height actually grants him enough leverage to twist himself free. Pressing his newly discovered advantage, Karol seizes Yuri around _his_ neck, attempts to turn the tables and get Yuri into a noogie himself—but fingers reach back to briefly tickle Karol’s sides, and he’s forced to release his would-be captive with a squawk.

“Cheater!” Karol calls, hands clutching protectively around his own middle. Yuri merely huffs and stares him down, but to their mutual surprise, the next move isn’t either of theirs. Instead, a feminine sigh rings in both their ears as the cake piece is suddenly snatched up from the table, and Judith tosses away the plastic wrap before pointedly hovering the slice mere centimeters from her own face.

“If you two don’t settle this in the next thirty seconds,” she proclaims, “I’m taking this slice for myself.”

Yuri sputters in protest. “Judy, you don’t even like cake!”

“Exactly,” she hisses, and brings the plate ever closer to her mouth. “So what’ll it be?”

Well, that sure does settle the argument faster than anything else.

“...Half-and-half?” Yuri hastily proposes, and when Karol nods his acquiescence, Judith promptly grabs the nearest knife, cuts the piece down the middle, and shoves one half into each of their mouths. Rolling her eyes, she then leaves the kitchen, stalking back to the corner of the lounge to continue watching Raven and Repede play a game of chess that Karol’s pretty sure Repede is winning.

“Man,” Yuri whines playfully after he swallows, reclaiming Karol’s attention. “I can’t believe you’re even freaking taller than _me_ now. What can I even beat you at anymore?”

Karol chuckles a little as he chews his own helping of cake. “Aww, cheer up Yuri,” he manages, grinning cheekily through a mouthful of frosting. “You’ll always beat me at cooking.”

Karol gets a punch to the shoulder for that, but even still, Yuri’s laughing.

* * *

**18**

On Karol’s eighteenth birthday, his entire family shows up at Brave Vesperia HQ to celebrate. That’s not a surprise in the least—they all rarely miss each other’s special days, and the others especially aren’t about to miss the one where Karol finally becomes a fully-fledged, legal adult. So he welcomes the festivities that greet him almost immediately upon waking this morning: the ice-cream cake that he’s fed for breakfast and the presents that quickly fill his arms.

Karol knows that everyone else must have coordinated with each other on what to get him. Ever since Rita’s sweet sixteen, when she was gifted one roll of her favorite blueprint sheets by Estelle, and another by Raven, and then yet _another_ by Yuri, they’ve all made sure to turn birthday gifting into a five-way collaborative effort to avoid any further repeats. This year, Karol gets a fully-stocked bag-patching kit, a new neckerchief, a jar of homemade gummies that must have been cooked up by Yuri, a big container of axe polisher, and...

Karol stares at the reddish-pink bottle that is his final gift, unsure of what exactly it even is up until he turns the container and reads the label aloud: “Strawberry-Flavored... _Lubricant_?!”

Cheeks instantly flushing hot, Karol whips his head up in surprise. Almost everyone else actually seems pretty surprised, too, and then four pairs of eyes turn onto the culprit with a simultaneous, near-scandalized cry of, “ _Estelle_!!!!”

“What?” the accused giggles, apparently very pleased to have somehow sneaked her gift past everyone else’s radars. “We all know he and Nan are going to have a celebration of their own after this.”

...Well. Estelle isn’t _wrong_.

Karol swallows his embarrassment and stuffs the bottle into his bag for safekeeping.

Raven outright gapes as Karol does so, the old man’s expression utterly scandalized. He melodramatically keels over, clutching at his chest, as if merely seeing Karol hold onto the lube bottle is enough to give him a heart attack. “Oh, the humanity!” Raven shouts aloud. “What ever happened to our sweet little boy?!”

“Now, now, don’t be so dramatic,” Judith chimes in, an amused little lilt to her lips. “He’s still right here. He’s just our sweet little _man_ now.”

Karol pouts, crossing his arms at the both of them, his cheeks somewhat warm. “How am I your sweet little anything? I’m literally bigger than all of you.”

“Hey. Don’t get cocky,” Rita calls, a cheeky grin on her face. “No matter how big you get in size, you’re always gonna be the runt of this pack in spirit.”

“You’re _our_ runt, though,” Yuri laughs before Karol can protest again, stepping forward to hug Karol around the torso—and Karol immediately resigns himself to what he knows comes next.

As if on cue, everyone else simultaneously moves in, four more pairs of arms huddling around Karol’s body to squish him within the customary group hug. Even Repede goes in for it, nuzzling his nose against all their legs, and Karol rolls his eyes at how damn cheesy all these guys are. Smothering the birthday boy is simply their tradition, practically their rule by now, and all of this is proof that no matter how big he actually gets, Karol is probably gonna be their baby forever.

Although, Karol thinks, as he lets himself drown in how warm and loved and _complete_ his family makes him feel, he supposes he can live with that.


End file.
